If you would like to explore the full programme….click here!

Love and best wishes

Anandi

The post Alternate nostril breathing before bedtime will help you sleep! appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

Well, I have to let you know that the sweet bumble bee sound can help you sleep better!  Yes if you can impersonate the sound of a bumble bee for at least 15 minutes continuously before bedtime, you could just crack your insomnia.

Fundamentally, you close your mouth, breathe through your nose and hum like a bumble bee.  The vibration that you create is incredibly relaxing to the nervous system.  In yoga, we call the bumble bee breath ‘brahmaree’.  This practise creates a deeply healing environment and an opportunity to go inwards after a stressful or hectic day.  The sound will find spaces that need healing and work away at blockages in the subtle energy system.

In addition, brahmaree soothes the brain and negative emotions so if the mind is racing every time your head hits the pillow, get in touch with your inner bumble bee!!!  This practise is amazing for insomnia, and it will help reduce high blood pressure and balance serotonin levels. It also stimulates the pituitary gland and the pineal gland which will bring us back into our natural peaceful state of not reacting to our thoughts.

This practise will encourage the brain waves to go from frantic and busy beta gradually towards the nourishing theta waves of deep sleep. Not a bad number of benefits for just making a bumble bee sound!

I do recommend guidance to learn brahmaree correctly which you will find on my DVD,  The Practise of Sleep which is focused around a special bedtime practise that involves the wonderful brahmaree breath and I promise you, if you do this practise for 21 days each night, you will be sleeping like a baby!

Always wonderful to hear your feedback and happy to answer questions.

Love

Anandixx

The post Letting you into a secret about how to sleep better!!! appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

Food in itself does not make you sleep, lets just clear that up first.  Just because you heard that turkey is full of tryptophan, if you eat turkey before you go to bed in the hope that it will be a magic sleeping pill, you will be disappointed.  The thing about food is that certain foods have certain compounds which interact with your body’s natural chemistry to help maintain equilibrium.  When the body is in equilibrium, the correct sleep inducing hormones will be produced at the right time – when you go to bed!!!

Please refer to my earlier blog for the explanation on tryptophan, melatonin and serotonin, but for the purpose of this blog I just wanted to point out that a proper balanced diet will give you sufficient nutrition for your body to create these sleep inducing hormones.  That said, I thought I would give you a few foods that boost serotonin so you can make sure they make up part of your diet…here they are (the list is not exhaustive by any means):

• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Turkey
• Whole grains
• Rice
• Pumpkins seeds
• Pasta

A word about eating late

Its very important to have any large meals 3 to 4 hours before going to bed so that your busy digestion system is not fighting with the sleep process.  However, don’t go to bed hungry!  Going to bed hungry apparently increases your cortisol levels which will, without doubt keep you awake.  So here is my advice:

If you had dinner very early, or perhaps you did not have time to have an evening meal, have a small snack before going to bed.  One of the best kind of snacks I have found is a protein shake, these obviously contain protein and carbohydrate are easily digested so they are not heavy on the stomach.  I always have a good stock of them as sometimes when I am teaching in the evenings, I come home hungry and the protein drink just takes the edge off the hunger without making me feel like I am going to bed on a full stomach which will most definitely keep me awake!

I use Biochem which is totally vegan and uses hemp as its source of protein. Just click on the link, it will take you to Amazon if you would like to give it a go.  Chocolate flavour is my favourite as I am partial to the odd bit of chocolate…..!

Sleep well!!!

Best wishes

Anandi x

The post Food that puts you to sleep! appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

This morning I have been going about my business thinking about the children that I sponsor at an orphanage in southern India.  I usually go every winter to see them, but this winter what with one thing and another, I can’t get there which made me so sad this morning as I thought about them and their Christmas Day.  Usually, Pastor Jay (who runs the orphanage) organises a party where they have special food and the girls get new dresses.  This orphanage relies completely on donations, and along with the rest of the world, there is less money available.  If you feel like doing something in the new year outside of yourself, get in touch and I can chat to you about helping out.  In the meantime, here is last year’s visit! Enjoy!

I would like to wish you love light and rainbows for 2013.

Anandi

x

The post Forget about not sleeping! appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

“If you can’t fly, then run…If you can’t run, then walk…If you can’t walk, then crawl.  But whatever you do, KEEP MOVING!”  Dr Martin Luther King, Jr

I know that if you are not sleeping well or not sleeping at all, you are developing insomnia, you will become more and more lethargic as the days, weeks and months go on.  The temptation is to vegetate on the sofa in front of the TV and make a coffee, hoping that you will be revived soon.  Unfortunately, its just a sensory diversion and not a very constructive way to combat lack of sleep.  The body becomes more and more sluggish and the vicious cycle continues until you just don’t want to move!

When we become inactive, unfortunately the ageing process takes hold, we loose muscle tone, our bones become weaker, our immune system goes down and we are more susceptible to depression.  The body is simply suffering from disuse!!!!

From my standpoint, I am talking mostly about the lungs and flexibility and I wanted to introduce you to Swami Yogananda Saraswati from India!!  Swami Yoganananda Saraswati is now coming up to 105 years old and is a great role model for keeping active.  He gets up about 4pm every morning and does his breathing, posture and meditation practise.  When I was in India, he was doing his practise first, then teaching us, and believe you me, we could not keep up with him.  His skin is smooth and soft, if you trimmed up the hair and the beard, he would look little more than 85 years old. He is a perfect example of the benefits of keeping the lungs in good use, and moving the body.

Its vitally important that we breathe properly, when you exercise, your body is taking up more oxygen, which means more oxygen for the whole body and the brain…I recently launched a DVD called ‘The Practise of Sleep’ which guides you through carefully selected breathing exercises to help calm the mind and bring vital oxygen into your system.  If you are struggling with sleep and energy levels, do try it, I promise it will help!  Its available on Amazon or on the Sleep Guru website.

The other important issue with movement is flexibility, each year we loose a small percentage of flexibility which is why if you become inactive for 10 years because you are just too busy, too tired or too stressed you will suddenly realise that you can’t move like you used to.

Going back to your original position of being exhausted and slumped on the sofa, make a decision, right now to change.  Research says that if you do something for 21 days continuously, it will become a habit.  So, check out my DVD, choose the practise most adapted to the time you have available, and commit to 21 days of practise. It must be ritualised, so for example, find a time every day that you can stick to and do the practise no matter what.  After 21 days, you will actually want and need to do it, plus it will have a huge effect on your energy levels, AND your sleep pattern will improve.

Make 2013 the year when everything changes….A new you!

With Love

Anandix

The post Insomnia gone in just 21 days!!! appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

The Massetter muscle in the jaw, which apparently is the strongest muscle in the body having the capacity to produce a bite strength of 974 pounds (measured in the Guiness book of records).  Mr and Mrs average, however (that is you and me) have a bite strength of between 117 and 265 pounds.  That is still very, very strong!!

Although you may not be aware of grinding your teeth when you sleep, you could be.  If you are stressed, you might also be clenching your teeth more and more.

When the Massetter muscle becomes tight it starts to create all sorts of problems, especially with sleep as everything, including your neck, will start to be affected.

I recommend winding down as much as possible by using restorative yoga and breathing techniques (see my DVD, How to get rid of Insomnia, The Practise of Sleep), and some jaw massage.

Try this simple jaw massage for about 30 seconds 5 times a day, and before bed. Insomnia could be a thing of the past!!! Find the corner of your jaw bone with your middle finger (careful of long nails!) and move the fingers in small circular motions as deeply as possible.  It will feel uncomfortable, but that is because the muscle is tight.  After 30 seconds open the mouth as far as possible and then relax, then see if you feel a sensation of lightness?

Have a go…and do check out my DVD!

Love

Anandix

The post Insomnia….Its in the jaw!!! appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

Why is sleep so elusive to so many people?  In my opinion, its a question of balance (99% of the time) and because we live in such turbulent times, its not really surprising that such a large percentage of the population are suffering.

Everyone wants to be able to wave a magic wand, close their eyes and go to sleep, but unfortunately it does not work that way.  Even more unfortunately, sleeping pills give us the impression that you should be able to close your eyes and zonk out for the whole night despite any imbalances in your body, mind and environment.  We have forgotten that we have to respect our being, otherwise it will let us know, and often the way our body and mind tries to communicate is by creating insomnia to make us listen.

The other problem is that, once we loose a rhythm, it’s sometimes difficult to find it again.  That is when we turn to sleeping pills.  The shame about that is that the original problem will continue to grow, and we will continue to sleep until something gives, and instead of an imbalance, a ‘real’ problem surfaces.

My goal is help the world at large to understand that its all about balance and sleep is a natural human birthright.  You sleep when it gets dark, and wake when it gets light, yes that is how it should be.

The imbalances in your mind, body and environment are reflected in the breath and the flexibility and openness of the body. With a little bit of patience and dedication, these issues can be overcome which is why I created my DVD ‘How to get rid of insomnia’ (The practise of sleep).  On this DVD I will teach you how to overcome stiffness in the body, a racing mind and shallow breath, all of which are the by products and some of the causes of insomnia.  It can take as little as 10 minutes a day, which I feel even the busiest of people can find in their day, to get  back into a good rhythm.

So please take the time and check out the DVD, I promise it will help, not only with your sleep issues, but in every other area of your life.

Enjoy.

Love

Anandi x

The post How to get to sleep! appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

Yes, its really that simple!!!  Years ago at a very stressful time in my life , a time when I was suffering from terrible insomnia, I want to Kripalu in the USA.  Kripalu is a retreat centre in the berkshires of Western Massachusetts.  Its a stunning place with stupendous views of the forest, in the Autumn, which is when I went, the forest is all kinds of golden, red and orange colours, just being there was a truly healing experience.

I learnt a technique there called BRFWA and I use and teach it all the time. Its the difference between going completely off on one or not!!!!  It will save you bucket loads of stress, I promise!!!  AND, if you do it regularly, it will help bring you back into balance so that you can start coming back down off the walls and start sleeping better.

Try the BRFWA exercise anytime you feel stressed and you will never look back…Now what you do is the following:

BREATHE…..Anytime you notice yourself reacting and getting stressed, start by breathing.

Notice the breath, watch the rise and fall of the chest, watch the rise and fall of the belly…breathe deeply into the stomach, exhale until you are completely empty, inhale until you are completely full.  Get into a deep rhythmic breath, breathing in and out 5 times.

RELAX…..Now, relax.  Relax the shoulders, they are probably up around your ears, relax the jaw, soften the throat. Relax and soften the belly and see how it will allows you to take a deeper breath…keep breathing for a few moments.

FEEL……Next, feel any sensations that are coming without doing anything or reacting in anyway, just feel what is happening in your body.  Are you hot? Are you getting agitated? Is your heart beating faster? Are you sweating?  Just continue to feel the sensations for about a minute or two.

WATCH….Ok, now watch what is going on in the present moment, bring yourself into the present moment, come back from the past to this moment, come back from your imagined future into this moment, now watch for a few minutes…

ALLOW…..Now you are ready to allow the positive to emerge from you, in this more relaxed state you are less likely to react in a negative way, and more likely to come from your higher self, meaning from a position of reflection which is always going to get you a better result.

The post Goodbye insomnia – Change your breath, change your mind! appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

I wonder if insomnia is just a modern day problem, or has it always been a human issue.  Personally, I think insomnia is an epidemic in this day and age, and if it existed at all in ancient times, in comparison, I imagine it was a very low percentage! People throughout time have worshipped the sun for its power. In Vedic times there was the daily worship of the sun with a special mantra called the Gayatri Mantra.  This was a sacred invocation to the Sun God, the sun being the source of life and radiance.  One finds reference everywhere to sun worship, all through the ages to the modern times.

Modern sun worship, though became very different, it become a reflection of our materialistic world, the worship of the tan!!!  People would smoother on the oil and face the sun for hours on end whilst they turned from white, to red, to burnt, to scraggy tan and lots of wrinkles.  This is not the sort of sun worship I am talking about…The world seems to have gone mad. We have forgotten how to live, and what the sun means, it seems to have been reduced to tans and summer holidays only.  We work long hours  in front of computers from early morning to late in the evening, hardly stopping for air, no wonder our natural biological clock haywire!!! Your internal body clock runs on a 24 hour cycle (circadian rhythm) and works best when you are exposed to dark and light at the right times, DAILY.  That means there should be a sunrise and a sunset in your day too!

To help get you back into balance, try getting outside in the mornings for 20 minutes which will help regulate the production of melatonin and likewise in the evening dim the lights before bedtime, perhaps light a candle in the bedroom as you relax before turning the lights out completely.  Use this as a kind of winding down tool.

Another great reason to get some sunlight is the production of vitamin D that helps control the amount of calcium and phosphate in your body which is needed to keep your bones healthy.  Natural vitamin D from the sunshine is best as your body takes what it needs naturally and de-metabolizes the excess.  Taking too much vitamin D via a supplement can cause the body to over-process calcium.

“Vitamin D, long associated only with its role in bone formation, is actually active throughout the human body, powerfully influencing immune system responses and cell defences.

It can be obtained from food or manufactured by human skin exposed to sunlight. Measures of vitamin D levels show, however, that many people have too little of it circulating in their blood to protect health.”

A very good resource, worth a read!!!: http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/physio/whitelab/papers/VitaminD-Nov07.pdf

So, get out into the fresh air daily in the morning so you get some nourishing natural light, and dim the lights in the evening before bedtime to help your body get back into a rhythm…..as you become more in alignment with natural rhythms…your insomnia will fade away!

Enjoy.

Love

Anandi

The post Power of the sun for insomnia appeared first on The Sleep Guru.

If you want to know how to sleep better, watch this for inspiration!

Insomnia? Umm, the human need for significance? I don’t need to feel important I hear you say…..but actually at some level or another you do, we all do!  When we feel like we are fading away and loose our significance in the world it upsets our balance.

By significance I mean, that we all need a sense of being needed or that we have some use being here which is often why older people become depressed because in their eyes they are no longer needed.  This of course is not true, with age comes wisdom, something that you gather through life and can share in abundance.

I find this lady so inspiring, I wanted to share this video in this blog.  She says she has been teaching yoga for over 40 years, and that she is a yoga beginner and is still just at the beginning!

Allot of my clients feel that they do not know what their purpose in life is, or why are they here?  I believe that is partly because they are never quiet enough to hear their inner voice, and life has become just one big race against time.  I have felt that myself over the last few weeks, and realised that I need to take some of my own medicine and retreat into stillness.  In stillness, I find myself again, connect to who I really am, the Anandi within me, once I find her again, I find myself feeling new, grounded and ready to share myself with the world again!

All the great masters teach that you need to go into silence to find who you are, they can’t all be wrong, yet so many of us don’t do it or don’t know how to do it.  This is what I feel my purpose is, to help show you the way to peace, tranquility and inner silence so that you can emerge renewed and inspired to enjoy life with meaning and purpose.

I am just about to launch The Practise of Sleep which is a DVD aimed at creating a bedtime ritual so that you can wind down and sleep better.  It will also help you recover from the trauma of sleep deprivation.  Watch this space!

Love Anandix

The post Want to know how to sleep – check out the human need for significance appeared first on The Sleep Guru.